Matt Serra forced to pull out of welterweight title match at UFC 79

No, the headline you just read is not some elaborate “November Fools” joke.

UFC.com has revealed that the highly-anticipated welterweight title showdown between Matt Serra and Matt Hughes scheduled to take place on Dec. 29 at UFC 79 in Las Vegas has been postponed.

UFC president Dana White is quoted as making the announcement on Thursday and indicated that Serra is out of commission after having sustained a herniated disk in his back while training this past Monday.

“This is devastating news because they were so looking forward to fighting each other,” White is quoted as saying.

Fight fans will no doubt be disappointed by this news but it’s obvious that few people are more disappointed at the turn of events than Serra himself.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” the article quotes Serra as saying. “I’ve never had a back injury before; I could hardly get off of the MRI table. There is no way I can train through this, and I’m devastated, especially because this was such an important fight. I was looking forward to fighting Matt Hughes. All my training was going phenomenally until Monday — all I can do now is to get better and to fight again as soon as possible.”

Fucking serves Dana right. If I believed in such a thing I would say this was karma for putting a whole division on hold to hype a basically uninteresting and contrived matchup.

The welterweights should have been fighting, instead they were kept on the sidelines because of a fluke and a hype machine.

I hope they take this lesson to heart and stop putting all the eggs in the same basket at the same time as they don’t let the hens lay new eggs.

How can it be that the general level of fights and frequency of great fights took such a bad dive when Pride died? The potential for great fights rose but they don’t seem to be happening. I’m so disappointed because I really thought the UFC would capitalize and perhaps raise the level of mma even higher.

Wow. That really sucks. First the lightweight division was put in limbo due to Sherk testing positive and the welterweight division has been on further hold. Fortunately, UFC 79 includes the Silva – Liddell bout, so that fight can be moved to the main event. Otherwise the UFC would be dealing with two sub-par events in a row.

Yeah, this definetly takes the wind out of the sails on the card. Now, the card is lackluster. Slightly better then the last one. Sokodjou is fighting, but relatively unknown to the casual fan. So, the secondary fight of the night of Manny Gamburyan now? Man, that makes this card much weaker, is it even work cashing out one of my nights of vacation for? 😛

It’s a little late to even fill it up with a decent fight to make up for it.

Just throw some big cash at Randy & Fedor, try to save some face. 😛

That’s 3 cards in the last 4 that haven’t had title fights. I think it may be time to start boycotting these lameassed PPVs. Like seriously, do half the amount of cards in a year and give us all the stars we want, the UFC content is getting spread too thin now.

Yeah, this is fucked up. This show is killing the divisions at an alarming rate. It shelfed the belt for how long? Then this? Give me a break. Like Zack says, what about GSP? Does he just wait? What if he fights someone like Fitch and wins but gets injured? Does he lose #1 contender?

Man, the “free show” shouldn’t take precedence over the “pay-per-view” cards, it’s fucking bullshit. Like Sam said, the hype machine has claimed another victim.

Serra should be just happy it happened in training and not when Hughes is shooting for a single leg takedown in round 2. 😛

Yeah, Anton, I think if loses, this is always going to be the “What would have happened if I didn’t herniate my idsc..” Man, I think with all the shit talking Serra was doing, Hughes at least deserved a shot at a ‘championship form’ Serra, now it’s going to be Tim Sylvia vs Randy. Least Tim took it like a man and fought for his belt. 😛 That’s what champs do.

Where does GSP fit in your Hughes vs Fitch vs Karo plan? GSP is still the top man, he’s beaten Hughes & Karo and Kos, who Fitch won’t fight (so he’s voluntarily taking himself out of the running) AKA better watch out, with Fitch, Kos & Swick at 170, they’re going to run out of top notch guys to fight if they won’t fight each other. 😛

GSP needs a fight, no doubt. I just would hate to see him fight a lesser opponent and risk injury just because the entire ww division is falling apart. I suppose he could fight Hughes and the winner then fights Serra when he recovers. This way we could discover the true #1 contender.

I don’t think Fitch would fare well against GSP, though it would be an interesting match up. Fitch is obviously a monster, but I expected more from him against Sanchez. Fitch, to me, was… unimpressive. He didn’t really do much to finish the fight.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Marcus Davis v Diego Sanchez. I have a feeling it would be Diego’s third loss… he just hasn’t been the same since the debacle with Kos.

TUF has screwed the WW division. Serra’s injury is merely the icing on the cake. Pretty soon it’ll be “Serra who?”

Serra really did his part to build up interest in this fight. I couldn’t watch a single episode without looking forward to seeing the two Matts on the mat. The way he clashed with Hughes was great prefight hype. It’s really too bad if all of that was for nothing. (don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of waiting 9mos for a title fight, and the mixed up priorities of putting reality tv shows ahead of the sport). I suggest an interim title bout. When Serra gets better, let him fight for the title. Let the stacked division move on. Hughes vs. GSP on the 29th. That’s my vote.

Who cares about Matt Serra’s title defense? His win over GSP was the all time greatest “lucky punch” win. He had very little chance against Hughes, and no chance whatsoever against GSP with his new camp. If Serra really does have a herniated disc as opposed to a bulging disc, he either undergoes a surgery with permanent limitations or lives with a chronic, painful condition. Either way, if he really has a herniated disc, it’s highly unlikely he’s going to fight again. On the upside, at least this way he can still say “woulda coulda shoulda” rather than losing and resolving all debate.

I think Hughes vs. GSP is a much better fight than Hughes vs. Serra. Serra seems to be a good coach, but I believe he caught GSP with a lucky punch on a bad day for GSP. Hughes would manhandle Serra. Hughes/GSP is much more interesting and even.